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Author Topic: Drop Pods: More useful or border-line broken?  (Read 10226 times)

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Offline Canoness Luzza (Toogeloo)

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Drop Pods: More useful or border-line broken?
« on: October 11, 2008, 10:56:11 AM »
It seems to me that since the release of the new Space Marine Codex, the number of players using drop pods has increased exponentially.  On top of that, the number of drop pods in play has become insane.  I witnessed a game last night that had 16(!) Drop Pods in play on the table between the two players.  Another game to side of them had 7 on it's table in play.

I know that being new it is something people want to try, but Drop Pods also have a huge impact with the new Space Marine codex now too.  Much larger than previous codecii by the look of the amount of Drop Pods I see purchased regularly and played daily.

What do you guys think?

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Re: Drop Pods: More useful or border-line broken?
« Reply #1 on: October 11, 2008, 11:19:15 AM »
The trouble is that you can counter a drop pod army by putting your army in reserve (or heavily flanking), half the pods have to turn up on turn one so if your army isn't there to be conviently shot to bits its going to negate some of their advantage.

If they come down close to your lines they position themselves perfectly for a unit to rock up out of reserve and put some serious damage on them and dropping nearer their own table edge isn't that tempting either since drop pod armies rarely carry much in the way of long range shooting. On the downside without much of your own force on the table your ability to carry an initative isn't likely to be very high.

One or two pods added as part of a conventional army are harder to counter but naturally theres less need to take an extreme counter tactic to it.
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Offline Terro

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Re: Drop Pods: More useful or border-line broken?
« Reply #2 on: October 11, 2008, 11:33:51 AM »
The trouble is that you can counter a drop pod army by putting your army in reserve (or heavily flanking), half the pods have to turn up on turn one so if your army isn't there to be conviently shot to bits its going to negate some of their advantage.

If they come down close to your lines they position themselves perfectly for a unit to rock up out of reserve and put some serious damage on them and dropping nearer their own table edge isn't that tempting either since drop pod armies rarely carry much in the way of long range shooting. On the downside without much of your own force on the table your ability to carry an initative isn't likely to be very high.

One or two pods added as part of a conventional army are harder to counter but naturally theres less need to take an extreme counter tactic to it.

On the other hand good luck getting those 16 drop pods off the objectives...

Offline *Striker*

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Re: Drop Pods: More useful or border-line broken?
« Reply #3 on: October 11, 2008, 11:58:50 AM »
16 drop pods between two players, which means around 8 per player?  Is it really hard to clear an objective or two of some av12 open topped immobile vehicles?  Rhinos cost the same, aren't open topped, and can move to contest an objective on the last turn, I don't hear of space marine mechanized armies being called broken.

Offline Terro

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Re: Drop Pods: More useful or border-line broken?
« Reply #4 on: October 11, 2008, 12:09:43 PM »
16 drop pods between two players, which means around 8 per player?  Is it really hard to clear an objective or two of some av12 open topped immobile vehicles?  Rhinos cost the same, aren't open topped, and can move to contest an objective on the last turn, I don't hear of space marine mechanized armies being called broken.

You can kill a rhino before it reaches it's objective or delivers it's cargo. A drop pod puts it's cargo where it wants to go risk free, and then happily sits there contesting. If you want to fire your guns at the drop pod, go for it. Leaves the sterngaurd that just popped out alive and well to shoot the crap out of stuff.

Offline *Striker*

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Re: Drop Pods: More useful or border-line broken?
« Reply #5 on: October 11, 2008, 12:24:24 PM »
I wouldn't fire a 10 man squad with a missle launcher at one drop pod, no, but isn't that why specialized units exist?  My attack bike with multimelta, or even my 5 man combat squad with a lascannon, will surely target the drop pod rather then the troops coming out.  you also have to assume the drop pod lands on the objective and doesn't scatter.  Also, drop pod armies are free food to armies like nids and orks, who laugh as you drop-pod your troops on to objectives, bringing you closer to their assault orientated troops.  Will one round, possibly two rounds of fire if your lucky, be enough to kill those dedicated assault troops before they munch up the not so assault dedicated marines coming from the drop pod?

Drop pods have advantages, sure, but they still have their blind spots like everything else.

I feel this post is just brought up by the fact drop pods have become much more popular now. They have existed and been an option for some time, its just now they are a much cheaper plastic kit rather then a forgeworld item.
« Last Edit: October 11, 2008, 12:34:38 PM by Lt. Striker »

Offline Lullysing, Appreciator of the glory of chaos.

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Re: Drop Pods: More useful or border-line broken?
« Reply #6 on: October 11, 2008, 03:29:22 PM »
well, it's kinda like this :

Droppods are the new frontier of agressively using space marines. Entire droppoded armies, or dropping in localised areas are gonna be a big thing.

But then again, i play mech spiky marines with lotsa meltaguns... so i'm not really worried about them. They want to come close, i can play it close range too.... and usually come out on top with my  2 close combat attacks.

The obvious counter to droppod armies is killpoints : IMMOBILE ( aka autohit) low armored vehicules.  I forsee some droppod huntage for killpoints using kraks, for sure.

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Offline NewHeretic

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Re: Drop Pods: More useful or border-line broken?
« Reply #7 on: October 11, 2008, 03:30:06 PM »
I agree with Lt. Striker.  Drop Pods are not a unit that guarantees a win for the army using them.  They are more useful now that half can be guaranteed to come in on the first turn and the other half may lock onto the first wave's Locator Beacons, but the main problems with Drop Pods still exist, they have just been lessened to the extent that more Space Marine players are willing to try them. 

The biggest problem with such a force, as mentioned above, is that they arrive piecemeal.  An opponent that is able to adjust his tactics once he sees the army he's up against should be able to take the Drop Podding army apart one piece at a time.  Since you should know that you are facing such a force before deployment begins, you should even be able to plan to counter it before you deploy any of your forces.

The improved Drop Pod rules and the new plastic models make them shiny new toys that lots of people are excited to try out.  That is the reason I think you are seeing so many of them right now.

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Offline Lullysing, Appreciator of the glory of chaos.

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Re: Drop Pods: More useful or border-line broken?
« Reply #8 on: October 11, 2008, 04:01:37 PM »
That is the reason I think you are seeing so many of them right now.

Believe me, as a chaos space marine player, if droppods were in my regular list ( instead of only as an apoc datasheet) ,  I would be working on an entirely droppoded army myself.  Can you hear my chaos lord saying "AIRDROP THE CRAZY DREADS BEHIND THEIR LINE" ? I sure as hell could.
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Offline BearBitesHurt

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Re: Drop Pods: More useful or border-line broken?
« Reply #9 on: October 11, 2008, 04:10:05 PM »
I just think they're more useful, but not broken.  Having to drop half of them on the first turn is more of a disadvantage than you seem to be realizing.  There's a lot that can go wrong with Deep Strike, and if you're playing against a fast army they can be on top of you in no time.  There are definitely armies and missions that make using them a calculated risk.

Offline The annihilator of worlds

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Re: Drop Pods: More useful or border-line broken?
« Reply #10 on: October 11, 2008, 04:37:24 PM »
Space marines actually stand up to their fluff now though. Drop pods do seem very risy and dangerous to use (Deep strike near the wrong unit) and if you have a sensible opponent they can cut off isolated drop pods and kill them if they do this enough it can end up crippiling your army.


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Offline XCrusaderguy01

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Re: Drop Pods: More useful or border-line broken?
« Reply #11 on: October 11, 2008, 04:59:12 PM »
The improved Drop Pod rules and the new plastic models make them shiny new toys that lots of people are excited to try out.  That is the reason I think you are seeing so many of them right now.

Not only do they have nice plastic kits, this in turn makes fielding an all pod army affordable, either in dollars spent on cheap plastic kits instead of expensive FW, or in time spent converting 8 drop pods. I know I never used them last codex just because I never had the models or the funds/patience to buy/build them. I had always wanted to try them, and now that I have several cheap plastic kits I have been.

Offline Zomro

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Re: Drop Pods: More useful or border-line broken?
« Reply #12 on: October 11, 2008, 05:09:57 PM »
What's nice about drop pods now is how they fit into a "standard" marine army tactically, giving more flexibility (which is what Space Marines excel at).  If they had the option to pass up on the drop pod assault and just bring all of their drop pods in like regular reserves (sorta like Deathwing assault, you can choose not to use it), would add another level of tactical viability.

Also, drop pods are just plain cool.  When I stard my marines, I plan on having a couple drop pods just because I think they're awesome.

Offline Wallance

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Re: Drop Pods: More useful or border-line broken?
« Reply #13 on: October 11, 2008, 05:10:56 PM »
Uhhhhhhhh... drop pods didn't just magically come into existence.  I don't see the kerfuffle since they were around last edition in the rules.  People just like shiny stuff.

Offline myles

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Re: Drop Pods: More useful or border-line broken?
« Reply #14 on: October 12, 2008, 03:03:11 AM »


If you're really all that baffled about why we're seeing a lot more drop pods now than in the past:

They have existed and been an option for some time, its just now they are a much cheaper plastic kit rather then a forgeworld item.

That's the real deal. As any Eldar player can attest (we went for how long without a wave serpent kit in 3rd?) it doesn't matter how good a unit is, if there's no model for it you just aren't going to see a lot of them.

As people have already pointed out, they haven't really gotten all that much better or anything. It's just that now there is a model for them, so we see a lot more people taking them.

It's not that complicated, and has very little to do with new rules and applications.

Space marines actually stand up to their fluff now though. Drop pods do seem very risy and dangerous to use (Deep strike near the wrong unit) and if you have a sensible opponent they can cut off isolated drop pods and kill them if they do this enough it can end up crippiling your army.


I'm sorry, I had to laugh at this. "Risk" and "drop pod" do not belong together in the same sentence. Even if you scatter the full distance, the size of the drop pod still allows the squad inside to be well within a foot of whatever they're aiming for, especially since they can drop right on top of their target with no worries.

I don't particularly hate drop pods or anything, but surely you're joking if you want to suggest that they are risky. The only risk you run is that they won't show up exactly when you want them to, and even then, they're guaranteed to show up at some point. (Especially considering that most of them will mostly be coming in on turn one.)
« Last Edit: October 12, 2008, 03:07:57 AM by myles »
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Offline Guildmage Aech

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Re: Drop Pods: More useful or border-line broken?
« Reply #15 on: October 12, 2008, 09:20:56 AM »
On the other hand good luck getting those 16 drop pods off the objectives...

Well, I'd have to go and fight for them wouldn't I? Which puts me in a much better position than sitting on the objectives waiting for pods to rain on my army and kill it to bits. And I think you'll find its closer to 8 pods...

Once drop pod armies land they aren't very mobile and only have short range firepower of much significance. So you can concentrate fire on on or two objectives to claim for yourself and then just work on keeping others contested, and by that I mean if a unit of sternguard want to sit on an objective behind their pod they're than welcome to... its not a problem to me.

Pure drop pods are a one trick army, its a good trick, but like all one trick armies all you have to do is learn how to counter that trick and you win. Admittedly I prefer playing high mobility armies since I'm firmly in the believe that power is useless is it isn't applied in the right place and if you use manouvre warfare then you chose where and when to apply that power (ie, not where your opponent wants it to be).
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Offline Grand Master Rex Nihilo

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Re: Drop Pods: More useful or border-line broken?
« Reply #16 on: October 12, 2008, 09:40:25 AM »
The new Marine Codex doesn't allow you to infiltrate your entire entire army as before (enough people complained about that) many armies where based on that tactic so DPs are a natural fit for those armies. (And GW profits by actually selling a model) So now you are able to use the pre-existing option of drop pods with a shiny new plastic kit, so what is the earth shattering news?

You'll soon learn to deal with those Pods, no worries!

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Offline Archaon

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Re: Drop Pods: More useful or border-line broken?
« Reply #17 on: October 12, 2008, 10:32:49 AM »
On the other hand good luck getting those 16 drop pods off the objectives...

They can only contest so wipe out the troops and concentrate on one or two less heavily attacked objectives and leave most of the pods there uselessly contrsting an open objective! That would be a real stinger.

And An army with as many drop pods as units has double the kill points of an army that doesn't. So just kill the pods alone and you can get near to a draw...
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Offline Terro

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Re: Drop Pods: More useful or border-line broken?
« Reply #18 on: October 12, 2008, 11:43:11 AM »
On the other hand good luck getting those 16 drop pods off the objectives...

They can only contest so wipe out the troops and concentrate on one or two less heavily attacked objectives and leave most of the pods there uselessly contrsting an open objective! That would be a real stinger.

And An army with as many drop pods as units has double the kill points of an army that doesn't. So just kill the pods alone and you can get near to a draw...

Unfortunatley my LGS doesn't count dedicated transports as kill points...

I'm not saying drop pods are unbeatable, but I wish the icons I purchased for my daemons stayed on the objective/blocked LoS.

Or that my daemons didn't die if they scattered...

Offline *Striker*

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Re: Drop Pods: More useful or border-line broken?
« Reply #19 on: October 12, 2008, 11:54:53 AM »


Unfortunatley my LGS doesn't count dedicated transports as kill points...

I'm not saying drop pods are unbeatable, but I wish the icons I purchased for my daemons stayed on the objective/blocked LoS.

Or that my daemons didn't die if they scattered...
Well your LGS isn't playing by the rules then, there is no point in complaining about something being broken because people are using house rules.  Also,  your icons you purchase for your demons are cheaper then drop pods, and they cause no scatter to happen.

 


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